Shoe-form.



PATENTED DEO. 18, 1906.

4M z/f fwzeya' C S PIERGE SHOE FORM.

APPLIOATION HL'BD An. 8, 1808.

CHARLES S. PIEROE, OF BROOKTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOE-'FORWL Specifieaton of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 18, 1906.

Application filed April 6, 1906. Serial No 310.011.

T0 aZZ witam, it may conccrn:

Be it known that I, CHARLES S. Prnnon, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brockton, in the county of Plymouth and Oommonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Shoe-Forms, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

During some of the finishing processes in the manufacture of boots and shoes and also for the purposes of displaying the finished shoes in stores and for keeping the shoes when not in use it is desirable to have a light and easily-removable form to retain the shoe in shape. For such purposes it is not necessary that the form should be of as solid a character as is required during the lasting of the shoe, and, in fact, a lighter form is more desirable on account of the convenience in handling as well as beingl less expensive.

It is important that the form should be so constructed as to be readily inserted and removed from the shoe. Some forms for this purpose have been made which fill only the fore part of the shoe. Some have been made in sections, one portion for the fore part and one for the heel part. Some have been made with two .Sections jointed together by a hinge, so that the heel part can be turned up with relation to the fore part to shorten the form during the insertion and removal. One of the forms which fills only the fore part of the shoe is that shown in Patent No. 568,325, to IV. B. Arnold, dated September 29, 1896. One obj ection to this class of forms, however, is the fact that it furnishes no support for the rear part of the shoe.

It is very desirable in some classes of shoes, especially those of light weight, to have a form 'which fills the rear part of the shoe, so as to keep the counter in proper form as 'well as the fore part. Moreover when the form fills the entire shoe it will be retained in position better than where it merely fills the fore part, as it cannot be displaced, while the form 'which fills only the fore part is liable to be accidentally displaced rearwardly.

In some forms of construction the fore part and the rear part both consist of hollow shells of resilient material. This form of construction, while well adapted for some uses, does not furnish a sufliciently stiff rear part to properly retain its shape in handling.

The object of the present invention is to produce a shoe-form which is both light in weight and cheap and easily manipulated to insert into the shoe and remove it therefrom, and having at the same time a sufficient rigidity in the rear part to enable it to be handled without distorting it, and also to retain its shape when inserted in the shoe.

The invention will be fully understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and the novel features are pointed out and clearly defined in the claims at the close of the specification.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a shoe-form embodying the invention, showing the form in its normal Shape. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partly in section, showing the form with the connecting-shank bent to shorten the form for inserting the same in the shoe. Fig. 3 is a top plan of the shoeform. Fig. 4 is a plan of the bottom of the form, viewed from the under side.

Referring nowto the drawings, 1 represents the fore part, 2 the heel part, and 3 the connecting shank portion. The fore part 1 is a hollow shell of suitable material sufiiciently rigid to retain its shape when inserted into the shoe and is preferably shaped'by molding or otherwise to conform to the shape of a part or the whole of the fore part of the shoe.- The bottomof the fore part is preferably formed With an open space 4, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, for cheapness and convenience in construction. The heel part 2 is preferably of wood and is shaped to conform substantially to the rear part of the shoe. It is not necessary, however, that the said rear part should be filled to its full height on the sides. For lightness of weight and convenience of manipulation I prefer to make it as shown, co'mprising a short portion 5, which extends the full height of the rear part, and from the front edge of the said higher portion 5 the top 11 of the said rear portion tapers downward to the front, preferably in a curved line,until it diminishes to a relatively thin edge 6. The rear part 2 is connected with the hollow fore part by a flexible shank 3, which should be of some resilient material. This shank portion 3 eXtends, preferably inside of the fore part, upon the upper side of IOO the bottom of the fore part rather than eX- IIO and is fastened thereto by nails 10 or in any other suitable way.

The fiexibility of the shank 3 permits the bending up of the heel portion with relation to the fore part so as to shorten the form, and the resiliency causes it to resume its normal form when permitted, and therefore is preferablel to the hinged forms. In order that the heel part may be turned up without interference with the fore part, the heel part is preferably made somewhat narrower than the inside diameter of the hollow fore part.

In .order to conveniently handle the form, the heel part is preferably formed with a finger-hole 8, and-thishole preferably eXtends back into the heel portion, so as to leave an overhanging portion 9 to furnish a grasping place for the finger to remove the form from theishoe.

'Any form of finger-hold may be provided; but the form shown and hereinabove described is simple, convenient, and eflicient and' has the slight advantage of reducing rather than increasingthe weight of the heel part.

WVhile, as. above stated, I prefer to make the heel portion of Wood or similar materialsuch, for example, as molded paper-stock, which is light and rigid-yet Il donot desire to limit myself to such a construction, because many of the advantages of my construction may be obtained by the employment of a hollow heel part formed by molding from leather board or the like. WVhen, however, such a hollowheel part is employed, it ispreferably secured to the rearwardly-extending.V shank portion, which is substanti-ally heel-shaped in contour and which forms a base or bottom for such hollow heel part.

I claim as my inventioni 1. A boot or shoe form. comprising a hollow fore part, a heel part and a connectingshank of resilient material which eXtends rearwardly underneath the said heel portion andwhose contour at the rearwardly-extending portion conforms substantially to the contour of the bottom of the-heel portion.

2. A boot or shoe form comprising a hollowfore-part portion, a solid heel portion and a shank of resilient material connecting said fore-part and heel-part portionsat their bottoms.

3. A boot or shoe form comprising a hollow fore part, a heel portion and a shank of resilientmaterial connecting said fore-part and rear-part portions, the heel part having a slop'ing top from near the rear end toward the front and tapering to a comparatively thin edge at the front and provided with a finger-hold, said heel-part portion being narrower than the interior of the fore-part portion.

4. A boot or shoe form. comprising a molded fore part, a heel portion having a top which slopes from near the rear end to the forward end thereof, a shank of resilient material connecting said heel-part and fore-part portions, said shank being secured to 'the under side of* the heel portion and being secured to the upper side of thebottom of the forepart portion.

5. A boot or shoe form comprising a forepart portion consisting of a shell of molded material, a heel part and a shank of resilient material connecting the heel-part and' forepart portions, the heel portion being formed with a sloping top which eXtends from near the rear endto the forward end thereof, the forward part of said heel portion being narrower than the fore-part portion wherebythe heel portion maybe turned up with relation to the fore-part portion without interference between the sides of the heel portion and the sides of the fore-part portion.

6. A boot or shoe form comprising a hollow fore-part portion, a heel portion. and a shankof resilient material connecting said fore-part and rear-part portions, the heel part having a sloping top from near the rear end toward the front and tapering to a comparatively thin edge at the front, and provided with a finger-hold, said shank portion being secured to the bottom of said heel portion an dsecured to the inner face of the bottom. of the fore-part portion, said heel-part.

IOO

CHARLES S. PIERCE. p

Witnesses:

ALINE TARR, WM. A. MAoLEoD. 

